Bernard Schoenburg: Scherer got more than $90,000 from Madigan in primary

Thursday

Apr 17, 2014 at 1:02 AM

By Bernard SchoenburgPolitical Writer

State Rep. SUE SCHERER, the freshman House member from Decatur who faced quiet but — as it turned out — tough primary opposition in March, survived the race with the help of more than $90,000 from committees controlled by House Speaker MICHAEL MADIGAN, D-Chicago.

In the part of Sangamon County in the 96th House District, final county figures show that Scherer’s opponent, GINA LATHAN, got 70.5 percent of the vote to 29.5 percent for Scherer. That left Lathan with an advantage of more than 700 votes.

However, Scherer was able to get enough votes in Macon and Christian counties to put her over the top. Election night figures had her up by fewer than 200 votes out of more than 5,000 cast.

Most of the Madigan support doesn’t show up on Scherer’s campaign finance report, because $89,702 of the total came as independent expenditures from Democratic Majority, one of the committees Madigan controls. Those expenditures, which can’t be coordinated with a candidate’s campaign, included money for staff, polling, insurance, and printing and postage for a barrage of Scherer mailers that went to households in the 96th.

Because they were independent expenditures, that also meant they weren’t capped. Direct contributions from that committee to Scherer could not have topped $78,900 in the primary.

Scherer’s own campaign committee had $58,085 in the bank as of Jan. 1, raised $94,625 in the first three months of the year, spent $86,792, and ended up with nearly $66,000 in the bank as of March 31.

Lathan raised about $32,450 and spent about $35,000 in the period, which included the March 18 primary. She had less than $3,000 on hand at the beginning of the year.

I recently asked Scherer for her reaction to her poor showing in Sangamon County.

“I know Gina Lathan and I both worked hard over the last several months,” Scherer said via email. “I was honored to have the support of the Sangamon County Democratic Party and so many residents. Talking to people at their homes over the last two years, I’ve heard so many families share their concerns about the need to create jobs, strengthen schools and public safety, and help our communities and families thrive. I will continue working with local residents, Republicans, Democrats and independents alike, community and state leaders to achieve those goals.”

About that party support — it came late, as the Sangamon County Democrats discussed races behind closed doors March 5 before deciding on endorsements including that for Scherer.

Interestingly, one $250 donation listed for Lathan came on March 12 from SANDRA DOUGLAS, sister of Springfield Ward 3 Ald. DORIS TURNER, who has overseen the local Democratic Party for two years.

Douglas said she did not discuss the donation with her sister.

“Gina is a lifelong friend of mine,” Douglas said. “We have a lot of the same beliefs.” She said among Lathan’s attributes is that she encourages young people to get a good education.

During the primary, Scherer more than once expressed her independence from Madigan.

“My boss is not Speaker Madigan,” she told the editorial board of The State Journal-Register in February. She also said “yes” when asked at that meeting if Madigan has too much power.

And at a March 4 candidate forum hosted by the Springfield branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Scherer was asked to respond to the idea that she was a Madigan “puppet.”

“I have made certain that the people of this district know that I have one boss and one boss only — and that is the people sitting here in the audience, the 110,000 people that live in the 96th District,” she said. She added that she and Madigan “work together on some bills,” and “on some bills we don’t.”

“I wish that all of you could have been a fly in the room when we had our discussion about the vote that I was going to take on gay marriage,” Scherer added. “And they wanted me to vote yes, and I voted no. I wish you could have been in there. And the governor and (U.S.) Senator (DICK) DURBIN, and I can go right down that list.”

She said she also withstood pressure to vote against the state pension fix pushed by the governor and Madigan, “and I stood firm” as a vote against.

“Every vote I take is for the people of my district — hands down, no exceptions, never, not ever,” she said.

STEVE BROWN, spokesman for Madigan, repeated what he has said before — that the independent expenditures were used to help Scherer for “strategic” reasons. While not saying what those reasons were, he did say the move was not made to spend over the cap or to hide Madigan’s involvement.

“It appears it was successful,” Brown said.

Meanwhile, he said, the fact that many Democrats in Sangamon County took Republican ballots in the primary could be a reason Scherer’s showing wasn’t better in the county.

On the Republican side in the 96th, easy primary winner MIKE BELL of Edinburg had $6,108 in his fund at the beginning of the year, raised $6,730 in the three-month period, spent $12,833, and had $5 in the bank at the end of March. His challenger, LANDON LAUBHAN of Springfield, spent less than $3,000 in the three-month period.

Big $$ lead for Manar

There’s a big money gap in the Statehouse race in the 48th Senate District.

Perhaps it’s a reflection of the fact that Sen. ANDY MANAR, D-Bunker Hill, is a former chief of staff to Senate President JOHN CULLERTON, D-Chicago, or that he’s taken on big issues including leading the charge to try to get the school funding formula rewritten.

For whatever reason, Manar has been able to raise a bunch of money. He began the year with more than $373,000 in the bank, raised more than $75,000 through the end of March, and had $404,000 in the bank at the end of the quarter.

Manar’s Republican opponent, Macon County Board member LINDA LITTLE of Decatur, began the year with $351 in her account, raised nearly $5,000, and ended March with about $4,000 on hand.

Among first-quarter contributions to Manar was $5,000 from the Illinois Democratic County Chairmen’s Association; $21,000 from the Illinois Laborers’ Legislative Committee; $10,000 from the Illinois Political Action Committee for Education, which is the Illinois Education Association’s political arm; $1,000 from ADM; and $1,000 from the Illinois Hospital Association.

Meanwhile, in the 100th House District, which includes Jacksonville and Jerseyville and extends to the western edge of the state, incumbent state Rep. C.D. DAVIDSMEYER of Jacksonville began the year with more than $59,000 in the bank, raised more than $37,000, and had nearly $82,000 on hand as of March 31. His Democratic opponent, JOSH EVANS of Jerseyville, had about $4,700 on hand at the beginning of the year, raised nearly $13,000, and had more than $13,300 on hand at the end of the quarter.